The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-09-24
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
RAp1nIrY OF TREE. GROWTH.

RAPIDITY OF TREE. GROWTH.
Cultivated in groves, the average growth in
,weIve wears of several varieties of hard wood has
been ascertained to be about as follows: White
maple reaches foot in diameter and 80 feet in
height ash, leaf maple, or box elder, foot in
diameter and 20 feet in height; white willow, Is
inches, and 40 feet yellow willow, Is inches, and
35 feet Lombardy poplar, 10 inches, and 40 feet
blue and white ash, 10 inches, and rs feet; black
walnut and butternut, 10 inches, and 20 feet.
ANTIQUITY OF ROPES.
Before the beginning of the historical period,
considerable skill in rope-making had been ac-
uured, so that it must be classed among the Oldest
of the arts. The existing relics of the ancient
Egyptians include sculptures showing the process
of manufacture practiced more than 1000 years
ago. while the oldest records of that people repre-
sent wel-made ropes of great strength. Flax and
the bres of the date tree were employed for these
ropes. but grasses and the hides of animals were
probably among the first materials used.
tT ANIMAL HEAT.
In the animals endowed with the most perfect
respiratory organs, the bodily heat remains uni
form through all changes of temperature OF the
surrounding medium. Respiration is more active
in birds than in any other class of animals, and
their temperature is uniformly higher than any
other. ranging from 106 to liz degrees Fahren-
heit. In the mammaia it is from 95 to 1O5 de-
grees varying for adult man, in different indlvl-
duals, from SO to 100 degrees. During fevers 1t
is several degrees higher reaching LOG or lO7 de-
grees in scarlet and typhus fevers while in other
forms of disease it falls little below the normal,
descending to 66 degrees in a remarkable case not
long ago reported. In health, it is about degree
and half lower during sleep than when awake,
and is some degrees higher in the very young
than in the very old. In reptiles, fishes, and all
so-called cold blooded animals, the temperature
of the body is very little above that OF the sur
rounding air or water, rising or falling with the
external changes. r
soLIDIFIED SEA-FoAM.
Ambergris, which commands high price for
perfumery and is priced in the East in medicine
and as q flavor in cookery, was once aosurdly
guessed to be hardened foam of the sea, or a
fungoid growth in the ocean, but is now known
to be a secretion of the liver of the spermacetl
whale, and is evidently product of some disease
in the animal. 1t is soft fatty substance OF
variegated gray or blackish color, and emlts an
agreeable odor when rubbed or heated. 1t is
principally found floating on the seas OF warm
climates, though it is also obtained from the IN
testines of the whales. The largest piece known
weighed 1872 pounds, and was bought from the
king of Tydore by the Dutch Fast India Conn
pany, A piece weighing 100 pounds was found
in a whale near the Windward Islands, and sofa
for $500 sterling.
COMMON MYTHS.
Ignorant folk, wondermongers, and even sclen-
tifc observers, have disseminated many erroneous
and exaggerated notions which are not readliy
eradicated We are still told, for instance, OF the
Norwegian maelstrom, frightful whirling chasm
in the sea capable of sucking down the largest
ships; though, in reality this fearful whirlpool
is simply run of. the tide through sloping
channel, is rarely dangerous, and then chieny on
account of the rocks which it may draw vessels.
Sir John Herschel gave his endorsement to the
statement that stars may be seen IN the daytime
from the bottom of WELL but this has been proven
to be an error by tests from shaft nearly halt
mile Deep, Mr.. John Murdoch has recently shown
that the Eskmos do not as text books OF physiol-
ogy affirm, doze through their long winter night,
keeping up their bodily heat by enormous meals
of raw blubber and lamp ALL but that their winter
life is active, their food mostly cooked, and their
consumution of Gil not excessive. A still widely
accented belief is that the hair-snake is Won
derful transformation of horses hair when Kept
in water, though these odd creatures (known to
science as Gordius aquaticus) really grow from
eggs, and in early stages inhabt the bodies OF in
sects. very old idea, without foundation In TACT,
is that crocodies shed mournful tears; while
stories of toads imprisoned in solid rock are nu-
merous, and supported by much evidence, out
have probably resulted from imperfect obserVa-
ton. Accounts of the termination of grain from
the mummy-pits of Egypt have arisen from de-
ception practiced by the Arabs in placing fresh
seeds with the belongings of the mummies.-
Though now known to be incorrect, the Inference
that the moon influences the weather is a very
natural one to unframed observers, and is far less
absurd than a thousand vagaries that gain cred
ence such as, the dropping of live reptiles from
the clouds, the election of live snakes and other
creatures from the human stomach, the localiza-
ton of water by forked stick, the extinguish-
ment of fire by sunshine, etc.
MISCELLANEOUS. , .
The Bo tree of Amarapoora, in Burmah, is
about 2,170 years DID, and it can be traced in his
toric documents as far back as 1S2 A. D. Other
trees are believed to be older-African and Cali
fornian specimens being computed at 5,OOO years
but there is no certain evidence of it.
Microscopic air and liquid bubbles exist in
many crystals of minerals, no less than 4,OOO,O00
having been estimated to have place in cube
of quartz one twenty-ffth of an inch square.
One of the glaciers of the Kinchinjunga-a
peak whose summit is 900 feet above sea-level
has vertical height of IA, 900 feet.
The Chinese boast of series of eclipses, re-
corded in the annals of the nation, extending over
a period of nearly $500 years, all of which, they
affirm, were not only observed but were calculated
and figured in advance. The golden age of
Chinese astronomy was from about 1857 to 40O
B. C.
The eggs of single sturgeon, counted by Frank
auckland, numbered 92l,6OO, and weighed 40
nounds